FORMER TEACHER ARRESTED FOR BURNING
The Civic Responsibility and
Consciousness of War
keith harmon snow
www.allthingspass.com
5 February 2008
Kiss the flag? Burn the flag? Support the troops? Stop the war? If you want to know why former school teacher and fitness coach Doug Wight went on a flag burning spree just before Christmas, maybe you should ask him. It seems that few people have done that. Newspaper articles that appeared presented few details.
Wight was in court on January 24, and his trial is set for April.
The Associated Press filed the first news articles on the morning of
Christmas Eve. “Anarchist Group Behind Local Flag Burning,” read the banner
headline. “Police say a flag-burning incident in
It was not an anarchist group, not an anarchist, and it was not anti-American. It was only Doug Wight, a former public school teacher and patriotic citizen spurred to action by a combination of frustration, outrage and conscience.
Doug Wight is the primary suspect in four flag related incidents in the weeks
just prior to Christmas 2007. But contrary to what most people believe, three
of the five flags destroyed were on Federal Property. The flag at the
Greenfield (MA) Post Office was lowered off the pole and burned in a dumpster.
Two flags on the highway overpass above the Massachusetts Turnpike in Palmer
(MA) were burned on December 7. One flag was taken from someone’s yard and a
note left to say it would be burned. The fifth flag was burned where it hung
from a tree outside someone’s home.
“A man police have linked to four vandalism incidents around
the
The story is not as simple as it would appear, much to the dismay and celebration of those both for and against what Doug Wight did, and the important points of consideration have been swept away with the ashes of the flags. As usual, the media and the news-consuming public have distilled a very complex and intriguing story down to a collection of sound bites and jingoisms.
Doug Wight gave an interview to the local Daily Hampshire
Gazette newspaper several hours before his arrest. He said he hoped his
actions would inspire others to take a critical look at the wars in
“I felt called, as a kind of duty and responsibility,” Wight told the Gazette, “to try and wake up the American people in any way I can without harming or hurting them. If I have to go to jail and suffer to help put an end to these state-sponsored atrocities and abuses, so be it. Such is the price of true liberty!”
News of Doug Wight’s arrest prompted yahoo reactions from
all sides. Some people extrapolate from the string of flag desecrations that
Wight is a terrorist, a menace to society and an anti-war radical who should be
tried for treason. Others believe that Wight is himself a symbol of freedom and
courage that the
“Why would a 65 year-old man, a former public school teacher, high school coach, health and fitness consultant, and YMCA Director, decide that he must start burning American flags?” Doug Wight wrote in explanation of his actions. “I felt it was time I stepped up some tough action that would incite, anger, arouse, and hopefully move some Americans to take stock of the values and principles our country is actually representing.”
My reasons for writing this story are many. The citizens of
the
Most people believe they have a right to say or do this or that, but they are quick to deny the same rights to others when others try to say or do something they don’t agree with. This tendency plays out in public spaces, in issues of freedom of speech and press.
Freedom of Speech is the right for you to say something that I don’t want to hear and for me to say something you don’t want to hear. It is not the right to silence those with whom we disagree, as much as we all—including myself—would sometimes like to do that. One is freedom, the other is fascism. People are confused about the difference.
FLAGS OVER YONDER
Many flag displays have been erected in public spaces across
the
One incident attributed to Doug Wight involves two flags
that were part of a huge “patriotic” display on the overpass bridge above
Interstate I-90, the Massachusetts Turnpike, in Palmer, MA. By late November,
the Mass Pike overpass—and others across the state—were adorned with as many as
12 flags, each about 3 x 5 feet, and there were scores of little
On December 4, 2007, the Massachusetts Highway Department issued an order to workers to remove American flags and other patriotic tributes on highway overpasses. State officials said they are concerned the flags and signs could fall on drivers, causing an accident. The state did not have a planned time line to enforce the ban, but Mass Highway indicated that workers would be removing the flags and anything else hanging over bridges and overpasses in upcoming weeks.[2]
“It has nothing to do with safety,” said James Wareing,
quoted by the Boston Globe. Wareing was reported as the leader of a
military support group in
If it was a peace display that
The Boston Globe reported that James Weiring invited
Alex’s father, Andy Jimenez, to help him take down their display before highway
workers could dismantle it. The display “is good for me,” Jimenez was quoted to
say, “because, I don’t feel alone.” The Globe reported that Jimenez’
son’s unit was ambushed south of
Any compassionate American would share in the sadness and concerns of a man like Andy Jimenez losing his son. (The Boston Globe didn’t offer any information about Alex Jimenez, just that his unit was ambushed in May.) However, to quote Jimenez saying “I don’t know why” is to disingenuously suggest confusion, rather than legality and public safety. Jimenez is accountable as the rest of us are for understanding citizen responsibility.
The Boston Globe took a biased position by presenting
the case of a
It is important to call out the bias involved in the reporting and slanting of these news stories. This bias is also practiced by the general population whenever passion and fear—rather than truth and reason—rule over personal interests. In my experience, and there is plenty of evidence to support my contention, no one would be allowed to decorate any Federal property with political materials—such as peace flags or peace “tributes”—that do not fulfill the war effort’s criterion of “appropriate” displays. There is a very clear public bias in favor of what some people consider “appropriate” and against others whose beliefs and values differ.
However, when Mass Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky
said that the new edict applies to all signs on bridges over highways, she was
not singling out people who would like to express their patriotism by
constructing memorials to the war in
“It neither singles out patriotic displays, nor makes an
exception for them,” she said. “The state doesn’t want anything—flags, sheets,
signs—hanging over a major roadway for safety reasons,” the Boston Globe
continued, noting “that Erik Abell,
Of course, the December 4 edict by the Mass Highway department that forbade “patriotic tributes” and flag displays—and peace signs and rock-star banners and whatever else somebody might decide to post in public spaces—was upsetting to the people who put up the displays.
Public fury by a select group of people led to an immediate
reversal order issued by the Governor’s office. On December 5, Mass Governor
Deval Patrick overturned the
The Boston Globe reported this but did not report that people do not agree with the Governor’s dictatorial action. Instead they reported that people were pleased their displays would stay.
Is the
Be it pro-war or anti-war or pro-peace or anti-peace or pro-life or pro-choice, where do the rights of those who wish to display their cherished symbols in Federal and state and other public spaces infringe upon the rights of those whose beliefs differ?
Thousands of cars daily whish under the Mass Pike overpass and each is treated to the spectacle of someone’s version of patriotism displayed across the sky above them. None of these commuters has any say in how their personal space is impacted, but that is of little concern to many people in the country, who feel it is their right and duty to publicly show their support for the war by decking concrete overpasses with the red white and blue. The false assumption is that everyone agrees with it. They don’t. More and more people disagree.
If neo-Nazis choose to put up swastikas will people complain? Will the Governor overrule the people if he happens to believe that Swastikas are perfectly fine? What about Confederate Flags? Or pro-choice banners? Or nooses hanging from sticks? Or gay rights flags?
The crux of the issue is that those who display their flags
on public property don’t care how it impacts me or anyone else. Indeed, we as a
society suffer from a great lack of caring, and believe that we have the right
to impose our will on others. In local terms, this is just an extension of the
war, by
On December 7, at about 9:30 pm, two of the twelve large
While the newspapers carried stories celebrating the construction of the flag displays on the Mass Pike, none reported that some flags were burned. Does the public have a right to know that someone is burning flags? Should the public be informed? Is that “news”?
FLAGS FOR THE WAR
For most Americans “Old Glory” is the ultimate symbol of American freedom, truth and liberty. According to what is now a long history of burning the American flag, those who choose to do so are afforded protection under the 1989 Supreme Court decision protecting their fundamental rights and freedoms of speech.
Is the state contesting Doug Wight’s free speech flag burning rights? In the case of the two privately owned flags on private property they are charging him with private property violations. With the other three cases it’s not clear: the flags were on Federal or state property.
Joyce Doody, executive director of the National Flag Foundation, and her organization, a so-called “nonprofit flag education organization” based in Pittsburgh, gets a lot of press promoting patriotism—centered around the U.S. flag—through all kinds of paraphernalia and programs.
According to Doody and her “education” organization, the
The idea that the American flag is “not a partisan or
political symbol” is ridiculous. If the U.S. Congress successfully overturns
the free-speech flag-waving protections—as it has sought to do just about every
year since 1989—then an awful lot of Americans are going to need to be arrested
and tried for using the
The National Flag Foundation is a private organization that promotes state laws mandating school “education” programs about “flag etiquette” and “good citizenship” and “free enterprise.” This is where the flag is used as a tool of indoctrination. The organization uses the flag to promote an issue—“good” citizenship—but such definitions are very subjective.
According to the Doody statement above, the organization is itself guilty of using the flag as a partisan and political tool. They just pretend that it isn’t so. By their interpretation, Doug Wight is a “bad” citizen, as is anyone who disagrees with their selective programs.
PASSIONS FLYING HIGH
Everyone reading this story knows what it means to have an irrational reaction: How many people have had some kind of very strong reaction to this story already? That is the place to begin learning about one’s self. The burning of the American flag is an incendiary act. It affronts some peoples’ deepest, most cherished beliefs. The irrational part is the part of ourselves that we find we are unable to control or confront.
It is by examining the strong, burning sensations that arise inside our bodies that we are given the opportunity to grow, to be better people, to become part of the solution and not remain part of the problem. That is how we will find our collective way through the complex and chaotic and, for many people, very frightening world around us.
But
Americans are hungry for truth, for leadership, for a strong and independent country. No one can deny this. Part of the reason we are so quickly “offended” by other people’s actions and other people’s words is that we often have no idea how to navigate within the world in which we have found ourselves. For many people this leads to deep and very real fears and frustrations, which often quickly overwhelm common sense.
Everyone knows that the American flag is flown all over the
place as a symbol of support for the
Back to the flags on the Mass Pike overpass, by what right
do a handful of townspeople decide they are going to determine state or Federal
policy? To see how twisted and one-sided the argument has become,
let’s go back to the fall of 2001. It just so happens that two miles down the
State Highway U.S. 9 from my family’s farm in
After September 11, 2001, the construction crew flew a
It was public property. It was never “their” bridge, and it wasn’t even “their” town. Now imagine some folks coming into “your” town and putting signs up on the state highway bridge that you cross every day, twice a day, to get to work. Signs that said, well, something you don’t like. Everyone can imagine such a sign, you don’t need me to hold your hand, and if you are honest with your self you can imagine how you would feel about some out-of-towners waving—in your opinion—their garbage in your town and in your face.
And of course, when I walked across the bridge and knocked the sign off its pole in broad daylight, the construction foreman lost his mind, one worker picked up a rock to throw, the police were called, and I was the "bad" citizen.
In
Doug Wight’s December flag-burning actions seemed to be part
of his rising agitation. Some people are quick to write this off as some kind
of personal grandstanding, but the same people would never say that about the
first patriots who took up arms at
It was just a few days before the first flag burning of
December 7 that Doug Wight attended a talk by John Bolton, former United
Nations Ambassador, held at nearby
(See the video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dFExiJ_4tU>.)
Rogue states? How do we deal with rogue Ambassadors like John Bolton?
HOMELESS MAN ARRESTED
At the scene of all the December flag incidents Doug Wight left notes attributing the actions to “The American Patriot Liberation Front.” In some cases he left a letter.
“They [letters] outline the group’s three goals,” reported the Greenfield Recorder, “which are: to burn every flag in America, to wake the American people up and to elect an independent president and Congress in 2012 that truly represents the real cares and deep concerns of the American people.”
The notes Doug Wight left on the scene spark my humor,
reminding me of the movie “V” for “VENDETTA.” Much like the theatrical mask
worn by the film’s character “V” suddenly began to appear on people all around
the city, I envision a sudden rash of clandestine flag burnings all across
Most of the few people who have heard about Doug Wight setting the flags on fire gained their limited awareness from the few regional newspapers that briefly reported the arrest on December 26 and his arraignment on December 28, and most of the news articles, at least partly, focused public attention on the fact that Doug Wight is homeless.
On December 23, Wight was stopped for a traffic infraction
and his truck was matched to reports of one spotted on the scene of the first
flag burning incident in Palmer, MA, on December 7. Wight was arrested and
jailed when he could not produce his drivers’ license, which he later did. The
police impounded Wight’s truck and ransacked everything inside it. On December
26, the police arrested Wight at 4:30 in the afternoon at an apartment complex
in
On December 27, Doug Wight was arraigned in Northampton District Court. Wight was in handcuffs and leg irons, an appropriate treatment, some said, for disrespecting the American flag, an example of the oversexed security industry, said others, given Doug Wight’s decades of service to the public. Homeless and indigent, Wight was given a public defender and charged with trespassing and destruction of personal property.
The initial charges all stemmed from the incident on
December 21 where a 5-by-9 foot American flag that hung from a birch tree
outside of a home in
“This flag burned up in less than five seconds and then it was out,” says Wight. “The tree is 20 feet from the house and it is the middle of winter with several feet of snow on the ground. There was absolutely no chance of further fire damage and the charred limb is so minor it is clearly an act of desperation to create a legal issue out of it.”
The note found at the scene was signed by the “American
Patriot Liberation Front” and it claimed the
The home belonged to a family whose daughter is a marine in
News reports also cast aspersions on Doug Wight’s character by drawing attention to his homeless status. Headlines like “Homeless Man Charged with Flag Burning” planted seeds in readers’ minds that because Doug Wight is homeless his actions are illegitimate. However, no one learns anything by whipping up an irrational mathematical equation that says HOMELESS PERSON EQUALS QUESTIONABLE MORAL CHARACTER.
My dad is homeless, and he is a very respectable, generous,
kind-hearted and loving
Doug Wight didn’t choose the “homeless” label that the media assigned to his headlines, and he isn’t asking for anyone’s sympathy. Indeed, quite the opposite. Since his pre-trial hearing Doug Wight has been very vocal about his actions and his reasoning.
“Over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children were
murdered in the initial ‘shock and awe’ bombing massacre of
Doug Wight’s homeless status has nothing to do with whether
his flag actions were good choices or poor ones. Drawing attention to Doug
Wight’s homeless status is yet another way that people in the
OH SAY CAN'T YOU SEE
In the past few years people across the
First there are all those tattered and shredded flags
attached to vehicles, many of which blow off and disintegrate in the gutters of
the country’s highways. So the “respect the flag” argument is just another form
of hypocrisy. What is most offensive however is that a huge percentage of the
American flags seen in public today are produced in
Can people not see the contradictions and stupidities
involved? For just $9.96 you can buy a
“As Bertolt Brecht reminds us,” Doug Wight reminds us, “War is business by other means!”
American companies produce more than 100 million flags annually. For those who are concerned about the environment, buying a flag is purchasing waste and pollution. For those who are not concerned about the environment, what difference does it make where it comes from? The symptomatic American carelessness wins again: “I don’t care about anyone else or the planet, I want my flag.”
“Post 9/11, and in our current state of war with
“The sight of bloodied soldiers and flag draped coffins sears unsettling images into our souls on a nightly basis. Remember that ache you feel for our troops and country the next time you need to buy a flag or magnet. For once, check the label, and buy American. A soldier is bleeding right now for your right to be able to buy anything in a free country!” [6]
Indeed, parents whose mangled children return from the
killing zones don’t want to find a little “Made in
“There is no way you would be able to buy an American flag for $1 if it were made in the United States,” writes Lois Kaneshiki, a homemaker who all by herself has figured out the basics of slavery abroad and unemployment at home—but can’t make the obvious connection in her muddled or self-interested thinking.
“If
It doesn’t matter if American workers don’t have health care, secure employment, a living wage or a clean and safe environment—a.k.a. those burdensome regulations on business—and it doesn’t matter if companies abroad have no protections for workers.
Those “burdensome regulations” are meant to protect people
from the kind of irresponsible greed and carelessness that corporations and
capitalism thrive on. Making my point are the millions of cheap but
contaminated Chinese toys that have been snapped up by American parents and
given to their children play with. What kind of savings do American families
accrue when they take their children to the doctors to find out they have brain
damage from lead poisoning? Naturally, the writer does not address the
sweatshop labor in
Does the American flag represent freedom from "burdensome regulations" that result in suffering for the American people? Sure enough. The elimination of “burdensome regulations” are at the very heart of the National Flag Foundation’s programs to indoctrinate children in favor of “free enterprise”—meaning to teach children how to exploit other people for their self-ish-interests and private profit.
PERSONAL
RESPONSIBILITY
Here is an example of how foolish and childish Americans can
be. On one list-serve where the news story about Doug Wight’s arrest was posted
the readers who commented complained that Wight was a fraud because he was
“staying with friends” in their
Another reader complained that Wight is a freeloader and a liar because he claims to be homeless yet he owns a stylish pick-up truck. Not only are homeless people considered scum, they are not supposed to own anything at all, else they are also liars and cheats.
“Anybody got a meaningful job for this guy?” wrote another reader. Obviously, there is no meaning in protesting against war, especially by homeless people. In fact, many of us believe there is no deeper meaning in life than to take a principled stand like Doug Wight has. As far as Doug Wight is concerned, indeed, he has nothing better to do than stand up for truth, liberty and freedom for all.
The examples above indicate the huge prejudice and hypocrisies of the American public. You see this hypocrisy and prejudice in action with homeless veterans on the streets of our cities. And there is the real scandal. The same violence is directed at thousands of Americans and it is even used against U.S. War Veterans.
Thousands and thousands of Native American and Hawai’ian
people today are homeless and there is a direct relationship between the
expanding
According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says that the vast majority of the nation’s homeless veterans are single, most come from poor, disadvantaged communities, 45% suffer from mental illness, and half have substance abuse problems. America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Forty-seven percent of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam Era. More than 67% served our country for at least three years and 33% were stationed in a war zone. [8]
It is very telling that no one keeps national records on
homeless veterans. Not only does the American war machine create homeless
people, it punishes the victims. The Pentagon does not have any problem
counting enlistees. This shows yet again how the
“Polls show that seventy percent of all Americans are
opposed to the
The National Coalition on Homeless Veterans offers VA estimates that nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and some 400,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year. One of the main reasons for Veteran homelessness is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a debilitating and sometimes deadly effect of the lasting trauma that war inflicts on soldiers and civilians everywhere.
This story of the
In weighing one’s quick moral judgment of Doug Wight’s actions one should take such facts into account and ask: where is the moral high ground? Who are the big hypocrites here?
The newspapers reported that Doug Wight moved to
And so one newspaper reader complained that Doug Wight is also an environmental hypocrite. “This guy supposedly left the flag burning in a tree, catching it on fire,” she wrote, “but he moved to dedicate his life to the environment? Something is off here.”
Indeed, what is off is common sense or rational thinking or perspective. The Pentagon—never mind all the multinational corporations—produces millions of tons of toxic waste every year, but Doug Wight is criticized for charring the twigs on the limb of a tree.
“Many of us here claim to be environmentally and ecologically
friendly,” another reader chimed in, “yet we still use non-biodegradable items
such as plastic garbage bags, we still drive gas-guzzling SUVs, we still refuse
to recycle glass containers. Mr. Wight is not the only hypocrite in the world,
nor is he even a particularly important hypocrite. He just happened to get
himself mentioned in the news. But I think Mr. Wight has a valid reason for
doing what he did, even if his methods might be a tad illegal. He is trying to
draw some much needed attention to the REAL needs of millions of people in the
“Americans need to understand how truly insidious large-scale corporate finance and multinational capitalism is,” wrote Doug Wight in a long treatise on war that he hopes to have published. “People need to wake-up to see how it is destroying our environment and oppressing billions of poor people everywhere. Too many Americans are a bunch of ‘sleeping sheep’ who need to wake-up now to help bring about fundamental changes that will help create healthy, equitable, peaceful, democratic, and sustainable communities, societies, and nations. We have to wake-up NOW!”
“Freedom of speech does not extend to endangering other people or their property,” said another reader reacting to Doug Wight’s actions. It seems most people would agree, and so now we get to the final issues.
POLICE STATE POLICE
“I actually planned on getting arrested eventually and
attempted to turn myself in four times,” said Doug Wight, mentioning another
aspect of the story the press ignored. “Every time I called the
police they assured me no warrant had been issued for my arrest. I even
had my attorney call the police. At 4:30 pm on December 26th, I called the
police again and spoke to a Lieutenant who said he didn’t know if there
had been a warrant issued. I asked him to go check. After a few minutes he
returned to inform me that no warrant had been issued for my arrest. Sixty
seconds later the
By arresting Wight on their own terms the police insured that he would go to jail with bail required. Further, the court looks far more favorably on those who turn themselves in than it does those arrested by warrant and posse.
The state prosecutor recommended that Wight’s bail be set at $50,000 because he apparently chose to see Doug Wight as a madman—the way that state prosecutors typically exaggerate the risks of those who appear before the court. The judge set bail at $2500 cash, but the public defender defended and Doug Wight emptied his savings account and posted $500 bail. Considering him a flight risk—rather than a civil disobedience case who willingly sought to face the consequences of his actions—the court confiscated his drivers’ license.
Homeless and without transport—his truck’s camper and mattress also served as his makeshift home at times—Wight then faced the sub-zero January temperatures of a snowy New England winter with no funds. Much to his surprise, even some of his friends did not support his cause. He spent three nights with no place to sleep.
“I feel that my entire life has been defined by wars,” Doug
Wight told me. “I was born in 1942 and lost my name-sake uncle in that war.
Then the Korea War came in the 1950’s and then the Vietnam War in which I lost
three very close friends—two of these from neighborhood streets where I grew up
in
DESTROYING PRIVATE PROPERTY
“The fact that Doug Wight was both jobless and homeless at
the time makes a significant difference to many people who would be weighing
the merits of his protest,” says local carpenter and civic activist Stephen
Goodale, an acquaintance of Doug Wight. Goodale, who is part of a growing
movement of citizens who challenge the
“Doug chose to burn a flag that was private property, instead of burning one that belonged to him, or to the federal government,” says Goodale, listing his strongest objection. “This was a catastrophic mistake, in my opinion.”
The point about private property is well taken, and one that seems to have turned many people off to Doug Wight’s cause. I am one who believes that burning the flags at or taking them from people’s homes is questionable. I believe it contributes to fear and violence and I have a lot of sympathy for the family who woke up to find their flag burned or stolen by some sneaky bandit under the cover of darkness.
I love the country where I grew up—I was born a redneck
farmer in rural
We are very touchy, aren’t we, about private property?
The farm was attacked over 40 times in the next months: attackers defaced and stole the sign, stole the farm stand canopy, destroyed the farm stand and finally some 4 x 4 pick-up trucks came at the night and tore down the large teepee I was living in while running an organic garden. Each time the sign was vandalized I put it back up. As far as I know, the police did nothing to find out who did it. But I consider those who attacked my farm cowards, because they did not show their faces.
How many readers disagree with Doug Wight sneaking around in the middle of the night destroying people’s private property? Is this terrorism? Was it terrorism to attack my farm stand and tear down my teepee?
“The vast majority of the activists in the
Terrorism often moves under cover of night. U.S. Special
Forces do all their work after dark. In Afghanistan, where I have investigated
it, U.S. troops break into people’s homes and commit crimes against innocent
people who have never held a weapon in their life, and whose family members
have never done so either.
The
Doug Wight said it well: Blood on our hands. There is
nothing honorable about what
Before judging Doug Wight for destroying a few flags, even
under the cover of darkness, Americans—all of us—need to take responsibility to
stop the massive destruction of personal property and the destruction of entire
nations and societies by the
Anyone who participates in war becomes a legitimate target,
a culpable agent, an enemy to someone somewhere. War is murder, and no one
should expect anything less to come of
Families whose sons and daughters are involved in war have responsibility in this too: None of this “I don’t understand” nonsense from the Boston Globe example above. (The Boston Globe understands, and very well, how to select its quotes.) We are all responsible for our obliviousness, and obliviousness is no excuse for murder.
“The first step to waking-up is to “feel” something—like sadness, horror, anger or disgust,” Wight says. “Something! In truth, WE THE PEOPLE have the power to stop these two sick wars, bring our troops home, and drastically reduce our military-industrial-congressional complex, but not until we care enough to ‘feel the pain’ of what our mendacious America is doing to Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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[1] “Anarchist Group Behind Local Flag Burning,” Associated Press, December 24, 2007.
[2] “
[3] “Patrick Halts Plan to Remove War Memorials,” <http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/05/a_reprieve_for_road_banners/>.
[4] Nazi Photos <http://www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm> & Posters <http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters2.htm>.
[5] See YouTube video
[6] Matthew Thompson, “American Flag Made Overseas:
[7] Lois Kaneshiki, “What’s More American Than an American
Flag Made in
[8] National Coalition for Homeless Veterans: <http://www.nchv.org/background.cfm>.